Note: I have made this with dried and fresh peppers, and I prefer the fresh ones when I have them. When they’re fresh I just destem the peppers and rough chop them rather than pureeing. Deseeding is tedious but looks a bit neater.

I blanched the tomatoes after making a slit in the skin until the skin loosened and started to peel back, then I peeled, stemmed, and cored them. This step greatly reduces your tomato volume, but is necessary in a cooked salsa.

Blanch the tomatillos for 3 minutes at a rolling boil. Puree, and allow to cool before adding to the mixture.

Mix the tomatoes, jalapenos, onions and the other peppers in a bowl with the lime juice and the cilantro. (If you are doing fresh peppers, add them here, rather than into the vinegar. )

Add the puree and the vinegar to a large stainless steel or enamel lined pot and bring to a boil, then remove from heat. Cool for 10 minutes then add to the mix of vegetables. (If you are doing fresh peppers, just bring the vinegar to a boil).

We have found that any fresh vegetables need to be “cooked” as minimally as possible. Don’t forget that the processing step in the canner does cook them as well.

Add the mixture to hot pint jars using modern approved instructions (like from the Ball Blue Canning Book). Seal and pressure can for 15 minutes.

In this recipe today we used the following from our own garden: El Chacos, Serranos, Anaheim, Jalapenos, Onions, Garlic, Tomatillos, Tomatoes, Basil, and Oregano. You can vary the heat in this recipe by using different peppers.